Q&A #101: What’s your favorite comic book adaptation of another property?

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Anika

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

What’s your favorite comic book adaptation of another property?

Anika

Star Trek. I could try to explain but it’s simpler to say “I’m a huge Trekkie” and post a panel I would literally recite from memory twenty years or so ago:

Caroline

I wrote about this book a while ago, while we were covering comics to recommend to new readers. However, it’s an equally good candidate for this category: The Escapists, written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by a number of artists including Steve Rolston and Philip Bond. This Dark Horse miniseries may technically be considered an authorized sequel to (or fanfiction about?) Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. In any case, The Escapists takes place in the same universe as Chabon’s novel, following the adventures of the comic book creators who attempted to write new comics about the Golden Age character created by the heroes of that book. Unlike a lot of straight “adaptations” of existing properties, Vaughan’s series doesn’t try to retell the story of the book it’s adapting, but gets into its world and plays around with a lot of the same ideas. It’s a great comic, providing yet more proof that the worlds of “literary fiction” and of comic books can coexist and enrich each other.

Jennifer

This weekend I attempted to watch the film of Neil Young’s Greendale, a rock opera/concept album from the early 2000s. I rented the film because I’d loved the comic book adaptation of the story, by Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang — loved it so much, in fact, that I chose it for the next Fantastic Fangirls book club. But the source material, as it turns out, is borderline incomprehensible, a loose story told in clunky lyrics and droning vocals that’s more political screed than narrative. Having watched the film (which is really just the album playing over some actors lip-synching the roles), I now have an even deeper respect for Dysart and Chiang and the story they managed to wring out of such rough raw materials.

I’ll elaborate on my thoughts when we post our next book club, but it’s worth saying right now that sometimes, the best adaptation is one that manages to improve upon the original, crafting gold out of straw. Greendale is one of those adaptations, and in its comic book form it tells a beautiful story about family, matrilineal power, politics, war, community, natural and supernatural forces, and a young woman coming of age in 2003. I strongly encourage you to pick up the Greendale comic and read along with our book club (to be posted in mid-April). But unless you’re a hardcore Neil Young fan, I wouldn’t particularly recommend the album, or the film.

Sigrid

This isn’t the most original answer in the world, but my favorite adaptation in a comic book of another work is Midsummer Night’s Dream, originally by Shakespeare, as adapted by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess in the comic Sandman. Scariest, creepiest, most fascinating Puck I’ve ever seen.

So what about you? What’s your favorite comic book adaptation of another property?

Interview: Kelly Sue DeConnick and Captain America and the Secret Avengers

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Jennifer

Posted by Jennifer Smith

Anyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time knows two things: I love the work of Kelly Sue DeConnick, and I love Captain America and the constellation of characters that surrounds him. So when I heard that DeConnick would be writing a one shot for Captain America’s 70th Anniversary featuring the Black Widow and Sharon Carter, I just about jumped through the roof in joy.

Longtime readers know that the hard-working DeConnick has been making a name for herself in Marvel through her work on the Sif and Rescue oneshots, various anthology pieces, and most recently the wonderful Osborn miniseries. To coincide with the release of her newest project, Captain America and the Secret Avengers #1 (on sale March 30th), I sat down with her to talk about that issue, her Marvel work in general, and other things that fill her with enthusiasm.

Captain America and the Secret Avengers cover

First of all, Kelly Sue, thank you for taking the time out of what I know is a crazy schedule to answer some questions. You may have noticed, from our constant praise, that all of the Fantastic Fangirls are huge fans of your work, and it’s an honor to get the chance to talk to you about this project.

Oh, pish. Thank you! I love the FF.

Osborn #1 cover For those who might not be as familiar with your work as we are, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Sure. I live in Portland, Oregon with my husband, Matt Fraction, two kids, two dogs and two cats. I held a bunch of different jobs from make up artist to medical assistant, but for roughly the last ten years I’ve been a writer. In comics, I’ve written the English adaptations of a whole slew of different manga series, as well as some original English language comics, most notably for IDW and Marvel. I am probably best known at present for the Marvel series OSBORN, though apparently it’s ‘criminally under-appreciated,’ ‘flying under the radar’ and ‘deserving a wider audience,’ which are, you know, meant to be compliments but sort of bum me out.

(It’s like when someone emails to tell you that they went to their LCS on Wednesday and your book was ALREADY SOLD OUT!! They mean it as a good thing so you have to thank them, but it is really anything anyone wants to hear. It’s not good news.)

Now, you’re working on a oneshot for the 70th anniversary celebration of Captain America, Captain America and the Secret Avengers, starring Sharon Carter and Natasha Romanov. How did that project come about?

I had worked with Lauren Sankovitch on a short called GIRLS’ NIGHT IN and she approached me with the Sharon/Natasha project.

Though you’ve done a ton of great work in the past year, one of the stories that really got me excited was your Age of Heroes #3 vignette about the Avengers liaisons to new top cop Steve Rogers. Sharon Carter, Maria Hill, and Victoria Hand all have a lot in common on the surface, as non-powered female former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents working closely with the Avengers, but you really did a fantastic job of showing how different they really are through their interactions with each other and their varied approaches to a crisis situation. With this oneshot you’re once again dealing with two characters with surface similarities, Sharon Carter and the Black Widow. How do you approach these kinds of characterizations and interactions?

I’m really pleased with that little piece–thanks! I’m glad you liked it too. Brad Walker was wonderful.

Dirty little secret: I actually based my characterizations of the women on core characteristics of their Avengers counterparts. I used Iron-Man for Maria, Cap for Sharon and, instead of Thor, Loki for Victoria. So Maria’s the thinker and the tech side, Sharon’s first to action and Victoria ends up saving the day through trickery.

You’ve written Black Widow once before, too, in your Enter the Heroic Age short story, and in other interviews you’ve explained that some of the plot points from that story will be carried over into this one. What can you tell us about that plot, and what draws you to this particular story?

Essentially, Sharon and Natasha set out to stop this young assassin-in-training Tatiana from becoming Sharon and Natasha.

That, in a nutshell, is what I wanted to say. For as awesome and badass as Sharon and Natasha are, they’re also… not particularly normal or healthy. They’ve been, over the years, lethal broken dolls. Maybe if they had a chance to change that trajectory for someone else, they would. Particularly Natasha, who had little say in her own career path.

Have you historically been a fan of these characters, or others within the Captain America universe? If not, how did you find your “in” into their minds and their world? What did you like about writing them? What did you find challenging?

I wrote five drafts of this script, several of which were sizable rewrites. I suppose I’ll have to leave it to the reader to determine if I was successful at all, but yes, I most certainly found it challenging. Probably the most challenging comic script I’ve tackled thus far.

Lauren and I talked a bit about finding their voices and her tip with Natasha was to remember that she’s a cold war Russian character at her heart. That was helpful, I think.

You’ve collaborated with quite a few artists at this point, including Emma Rios on Osborn, Jamie McKelvie on your first Black Widow story, and now Greg Tocchini on this project – whose art, from all the previews I’ve seen [see images in this post!], looks gorgeous. What have your collaborative experiences been like? How have they differed, and what have you learned from them?

They’ve each been unique experiences. Jamie was already a buddy of mine, so that was a comfortable collaboration from the start. Emma and I have now worked together on multiple issues, so we’ve grown quite close and we’re talking about doing a creator-owned book together as soon as possible. As much as I love what Greg’s doing, he and I haven’t actually interacted at all. (I’ve also worked with Brad Walker, Ryan Stegman, Adriana Melo and Andrea Mutti over the last year.)

I guess what I’ve learned in general is to get out of the artist’s way as much as possible.

A few more general questions before we go:

In the past you’ve primarily worked in manga adaptation and original stories, but with your Marvel work you’re facing the challenges of working within a shared universe, giving you more freedom than an adaptation but less than something purely creator-owned. How have you approached this new challenge?

The hardest, most humbling thing I’ve learned is that I don’t write fast enough. There used to be a rule of threes–FAST/NICE/GOOD–you needed to be two out of three to keep working. I think these days you need to be all three. I’ve had my misses, but for the most part, I’m pretty good. And I’m sweet as pie. I’ve got to get fast if I want to keep working. Cold, hard truth.

With my manga adaptations I had a page count I had to hit every day and that was how I managed my workload. I’m going to have to set myself up with something similar I think for original work. An amorphous “two-to-three weeks to work on this” isn’t panning out for me because I find myself going through false-starts and rewriting chunks to death before I’ve got a complete finished draft. I think I need to plan the whole project from the get-go in order to keep up the forward momentum. (My strategy had been rough outline, then try to script 4 pages a day. Sounds doable–and is–but I didn’t factor in enough time to outline and would end up rewriting my four pages borrowing time from days ahead, yadda yadda yadda.)

I get the most work done when I’m able to stay up over night and work while the babies are sleeping. Unfortunately, I can’t do that too often. Physically, it’s just too much for me. I get up anywhere from 5am to 7am with the kids and as I’ve been breastfeeding one kid or the other since September 2007, I don’t think I’ve had 8 hours sleep in a row for more than 3 years.

Bitch, bitch, moan, moan. I know. I need to get it figured out. And I will. I just hope I get it figured out fast enough.

You’ve caught me at a moment when I’ve just finished one project and I’m about to start another. I have a plan. Cross your fingers for me.

Our fingers are most definitely crossed!

You’re very active on Twitter, using it to share your thoughts and interact with colleagues and fans as well as your friends and family. How do you think Twitter has changed the comic book industry, particularly in terms of transparency, accessibility, and networking? How does this differ from your experiences with message boards and other, earlier forms of the comics internet, which I know you’ve also been a part of?

You know, I love Twitter, but I don’t think I’ve exactly figured it out for myself just yet. I don’t have the time for social networks that I used to have before we called them social networks and before I had kids.

When I think about how much time I used to have…

But yes, Twitter. It amuses me. It’s my guilt-free internet because it demands nothing and promises nothing. I don’t feel like I have to “catch up” on my twitter feed if I miss it. I read it when I feel like it and let it scroll for hours at a time and never go back.

Brian Bendis was making fun of me the other day, saying he can tell when I’m having a rough work day or a rough day with the kids because my twitter feed reads like a cry for help. I laughed, but it got me thinking about how my feed is received/consumed. I tend to think of twitter as a steam valve, a place I can scream or laugh into the ether, but every now and again I am reminded that my feed is read by a great many people who don’t know me. Their entire concept of who I am as a human being is formed by that feed. So then I go back and look at my feed and I wonder what kind of a portrait that paints. Never mind how accurate it is, is it appealing or interesting at all?

Most of the time I come across as a harried mother of two who wants to share her coupons. Now, that’s probably more accurate than I’d care to admit, but is it serving me professionally? I’d lay money against it.

I always get emails after interviews thanking me for being ‘refreshingly honest,’ or whatever. So, maybe I’m overthinking this. But you know, while sharing my insecurities may make others feel more comfortable about their own, is it really helping me get to where I want to be? I don’t know.

Answering your questions stream-of-consciousness like this certainly isn’t breaking any new ground for me, is it?! Oh boy. I wonder if I’ll ever learn.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d say you come across just fine – professional, enthusiastic, thoughtful, and able to juggle all your obligations no matter how stressful they may be. There’s a reason my co-bloggers and I were so happy to get the chance to talk to you.

Now, most people working in the comic book industry were fans of comic books first and foremost. Have you had any memorable fan moments as a professional?

I made an ass of myself when I met Tori Amos. And I think I get a little lightheaded every time Howard Chaykin calls our house.

Comic Book Tattoo

We here at Fantastic Fangirls like to celebrate enthusiasm in all of its forms. What media, comics or otherwise, has gotten you excited lately?

Oh, let’s see…

I only watch two shows right now– CASTLE and WHITE COLLAR. Neither is earth-shattering, but I suspect both are better than you think. Oh, wait—Dr. Who. I’m very late to the DR WHO party and I was just thinking the other day that it might be my favorite show. I liked 2 of the three eps of SHERLOCK I saw quite a bit too. I wonder if there are any more of those…

Hm. That wasn’t much of a rave, was it? You caught me on a dour day. I actually need to shake this off and get excited about something soon. I don’t write well when I’m blue. (I write well when I’m angry. Maybe I should go read the news.)

I am really into Sergio Leone right now–I’m reading a biography called SOMETHING TO DO WITH DEATH. I’ve got a long plane ride coming up and I think the thing I’m most looking forward to about the trip is some uninterrupted time with that book.

Comics-wise, I love what Bendis is doing with SCARLET. And Fraction’s CASANOVA Volume 3 has me giddy with anticipation. Rucka’s STUMPTOWN is really good. I’m a fan of all things Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Steve Niles, either Immonen, Jen Van Meter, Jason Aaron, Jonathan Hickman…

But you knew I’d say all that, didn’t you?

I recently went back and watched The Incredible Hulk TV show pilot and you know what? It holds up. There’s an awkward montage, but other than that, I remain a fan. Solid acting, solid writing, the premise is well-conceived… good stuff.

I have a stack of DVDs here that I haven’t had time to watch, but am looking forward to: WANDERING GINZA BUTTERFLY 1 & 2, IRON MAN 2 (No, I haven’t seen it. I KNOW.) and some collections of music videos and short films by Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. For Christmas I got DVDs of the old WONDER WOMAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN TV series and I’m looking forward to those.

I loved TRUE GRIT.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to plug, or any upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

No, sadly, nothing I can talk about yet!

Thanks for asking, though.

And there you have it! Remember to pick up Captain America and the Secret Avengers from your LCS on March 30, 2011 — it’s sure to be a treat. And thank you again, Ms. DeConnick, for taking the time to share your thoughts with the Fantastic Fangirls! It was a genuine honor to interview you, and we all look forward to every bit of your future work, whatever that may be!

What girl comics means to me.

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Sigrid

The trade paperback collection of Marvel’s Girl Comics came out this week. I bought it, and would have read it save that I loaned it to a neighbor on Wednesday evening. That’s okay, though. There’s no shortage of girl comics — comics produced by women, featuring women, talking about and to women — in my life.

I bought and read issues of seven different superhero comic book titles this week. Two are named after their female leads, Batgirl and X-23. One is a majority female ensemble cast, Birds of Prey. Two are ensemble books with female co-leads, New Avengers and X-Men Legacy. Captain America and the First Thirteen is narrated by and stars a female lead. And Hawkeye: Blindspot features Maria Hill in the supporting cast.

On the creative teams on these books we have Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Gail Simone, Janine Schaefer, Janelle Siegel, Katie Kunbert, Nei Ruffino, Kathryn Immonen, Rachel Pinnelas, and Lauren Sankovitch.

In X-Men Legacy the overwhelming majority of the female characters wore costumes that covered their whole bodies, including on the cover. More men were half-naked than women. The villain in this week’s New Avengers is female. Jessica Jones continues to dress sensibly in jeans and a t-shirt, much like her husband Luke Cage. The two female leads in Captain American and the First Thirteen continually get the emotional drop on a young, naive-ish Captain America. Also, they are fully dressed throughout the issue, even when changing clothes.

Laura Kinney in X-23 continues to struggle with her insanely abusive and horrific past in ways that are emotionally resonant and superheroic. The walking-the-earth plot device gives Liu the space and time to give Laura’s character something besides “Wolverine’s clone.” It has always been an irritant to me that the heroes I love in comics have terrible things happen to them and then they just move on. People don’t work that way. It comes back to haunt you. I approve of Avengers: Disassembled, I approve of Civil War. I approve of Laura needing to get the hell away from all the various people who try to control and manipulate her — and I do most certainly include Scott Summers and the X-Men in this account. Marjorie Liu is writing this journey, this process, with deft grace when it could all-too-easily be exploitative, glib, or offensive. And Sana Takeda’s art keeps Laura in her traditional costume without making the reader complicit in creepy sexualizing of an abused teenage girl. Kudos to both of them.

I liked both Birds of Prey and Batgirl this week. I admit my enjoyment of the issues was marred by the lack of Cassandra Cain. However, Gail Simone has been saying publicly for some time now that there are background things going on, about which she can’t talk, that tie her hands. (And, presumably, Bryan Q. Miller’s hands as well.) I appreciated Gail taking the time in Birds of Prey to mention Cass’s absence.

Setting that aside, though, I am glad to see the developing relationship between Stephanie Brown and Wendy Harris in Batgirl. As much as I joke about my women-together femslash goggles and my shipping preferences, I do not think every female relationship in the comics I like needs to be gay. I strongly prefer that they not be. What I want, and always clamor for, is diversity. I want the rich diversity in women’s relationships — friendships, rivalries, enmities, romantic liaisons, partnerships, all of it — to be represented in the stories I love. And Steph and Wendy are forming a prickly, defensive, genuine friendship. I approve, Bryan, I distinctly approve.

As for Birds of Prey? A delight. Dinah and Helena are a joy to behold. Thank you, Gail, as always.

This is not merely the future of superhero comics, it’s the present. This is what girl comics means to me.

by Sigrid

Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis

Interview with Writer Jason Henderson, Part Two

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Caroline

Yesterday, we shared the first part of Caroline’s interview with writer Jason Henderson, which focused on his Marvel miniseries, Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow. Today we continue with a discussion of Henderson’s work in manga and Young Adult fiction. We also touch on issues related to publishing in general, and — haters to the left! — why people will always love stories about vampires.

Continue reading →

Interview with Writer Jason Henderson, Part One

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Caroline

Recently, Caroline had a chance to interview writer Jason Henderson, whose work includes the Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow miniseries from Marvel. The Q&A ended up being so interesting that we’re going to spread it over two days. Today’s installment will focus on his most recent Marvel work, now available in hardcover. Among other things, Jason will explain how Daughters of the Shadow — which includes the continuing adventures of everybody’s favorite sneaker-wearing samurai detective, Colleen Wing — is the perfect blending of Batman and the Outsiders, a James Bond movie, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I think all our readers can agree this makes it one of the awesomest things ever.

Now, on with the show!

First of all, Jason, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to answer some questions. It’s a pleasure to get the chance to interview you.

Listen, I really admire Fantastic Fangirls. I love that it has its own voice and I’ve found several articles, like Where Have All the Silver Age Women Gone? to be very compelling reading. So thank YOU!

For those who might not be familiar with your work, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Continue reading →

Q&A #100: It’s a picnic!

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Anika

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments. To celebrate our 100th Q&A feature, we decided to defy the northern hemisphere winter weather and have a picnic.

Imagine your perfect picnic. Now imagine it, instead, with your favorite characters from comics. The Fantastic Fangirls did, each “inviting” a guest.

Anika

Location, location, location. There are plenty of mansions with inviting picnicy backyards — I mean, the X-Mansion’s surrounding grounds are sorta ideal. But that’s if you want your perfect picnic to be like something out of a Jane Austen novel (not gonna lie, that is probably my idea of a perfect picnic — oooh, or the one at the beginning of Kenneth Brannagh’s Much Ado About Nothing. . . if only Emma Thompson was a character from comics). And sure, the rolling cornfields of Smallville would accommodate a swell picnic. But I have another idea.

The top of Titans Tower.

Great view. Space for flying and an ocean for swimming. And when the inevitable supervillain attack happens, a defensible stronghold.

And I invite Wanda Maximoff because I think she’d be happier if she joined the DCU and this would be a good opportunity to make new friends. And she wears flowers in her hair.

Caroline

My immediate thought for “character who really deserves and would enjoy a fun picnic outing” is Winry Rockbell, from the manga and anime Fullmetal Alchemist.

Winry is the requisite teen-genius mechanic of FMA’s steam-punky world. When she’s not busy being haunted by her tragic past or feeling Important Feelings (she does live in an anime/manga world), she is quite a fun-loving girl. She works very hard at her job in the auto-mail shop, though, and when she’s not on the clock, she is probably helping clean up some mess that her childhood friend Edward Elric has gotten himself into. (Winry feels Important Feelings about Edward, of course, but a girl needs a day off.) People like Winry do a lot of the heavy lifting in various fictional worlds, without a lot of the glory, and the girl deserves a holiday.

Wanda and Winry would get on amazingly well. They would talk about robots and robotics. Some of Winry’s questions about what exactly being married to somebody with metal body parts is like might seem a little inappropriate coming from a teenage girl. But she’s just curious, and Wanda really doesn’t mind talking about it.

Jennifer

When you have a picnic on a roof, you’re opening yourself up to the possibility that flying superheroes might notice and crash your party. One of those flying superheroes might be Tony Stark, who would certainly have more than enough to chat about with a brilliant teenage mechanic. But his relationship with Wanda is a little complicated and it seems best if he flies on by, too busy with Avengers business to drop in on this little soiree.

This party does seem to have a theme, though, and that theme is “people whose names start with ‘W’.” And what do you know, another flying billionaire playboy fits that theme perfectly. Warren Worthington III is just flying around idly when he spots Wanda on the roof of Titans Tower, and decides to swoop in to say hi. He hasn’t seen her in ages, and ever since the brief fling they had as teenagers he’s always been fond of her. With his abundant cash flow and resources he’s soon helicoptering in picnic food and settling in to join the party, flirting fruitlessly with both Wanda and Winry — who is far too young for him, of course, but he doesn’t know she isn’t legal and it’s not like he doesn’t have a history of going after too-young girls.

Luckily, Wanda and Winry are far too engaged in their robot conversation to pay him much mind, though they do politely accept his food.

Sigrid

Hello, everyone. I’m Haruhi Fujioka, and in Ouran High School Host Club we sometimes break the fourth wall to address the reader directly. So I’d like to say that although this is a very odd picnic, it’s not unpleasant.

Yep. That’s why I’d invite Haruhi to the Fantastic Fangirls’ picnic. She’s intelligent enough to hold her own in conversation with the others, observant about the things that other people try to keep private, and tends to be straightforward. If she thinks a remark is relevant, she’ll say it, without really considering whether it’s the most diplomatic thing. In the company of Winry, Warren, and Wanda, those all seem like strengths rather than handicaps.

Now it is your turn — Who would you invite to a picnic, either the one we’ve imagined or a fresh one of your own? Would it be a success? A rainy disaster? Would it change the world? Let the Fangirls know!

Fangirl Friday: Caroline

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Anika

Posted by Anika

For today’s Fangirl Friday we have another of our own. The first real conversation I had with Caroline was about Cable, and Jean Grey’s questionable decision to ask for his help while wearing nothing but a bathrobe. It remains one of the top 100 conversations I have ever had. Fantastic Fans — here’s Caroline!

Name: Caroline Pruett

Where do you live? Richmond, Virginia

What is your job? Education? I have a graduate creative writing degree and a law degree. I have a job in a cubicle where I sort of use skills from both degrees. It’s boring, let’s talk about something else.

Tell me about your family: My family consists of my parents, three brothers, and my sister, plus my siblings’ various significant others and kids. I grew up in kind of a loud, rowdy house where getting a word in edgewise could be a competition, and being well-informed and funny and kind of a nerd was rewarded and expected. Good training for fandom, in other words.

How long have you been reading comics? About five years as a “serious” comic book fan. Before that, I read some graphic novels casually. And as a teenager, I loved newspaper comic strips like Bloom County, Doonesbury, and Calvin and Hobbes. So I’ve been a fan of words with pictures for a long time, I just didn’t put it together with loving “comics” as a medium until I was thirty. Even though I’m pretty confident that I can hold my own with just about any other critic or fan, I still sometimes get a reminder that I came to this late.

Many people believe the “words with pictures” medium is — or should be — directed at children, and adults who read comics are either childish or nostalgic. What are your thoughts? Quite the opposite, I think. I love reading prose books, but it seems to me that a medium which makes you use more than one part of your brain at the same time — processing images and words — has to have the potential to make you smarter. I started reading a lot of comics when I was thirty or so, and I discovered that I was learning to read in a new way. How can that be bad?

Do you have a favorite comic of all time? A favorite character? Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men series was the title that brought me into superhero comics, so I have a special affection for that. Though, ironically, that series brought me into reading other X-Men titles, and made me a fan of Jean Grey, who isn’t really in it. Which doesn’t stop me from saying she’s the most important character in the series. If everything wasn’t always bouncing off of Jean and her history with the X-Men, nothing in the book would mean as much.

How about favorite creators? I’ll try anything Greg Rucka or Jeff Parker does, and I’m a fan of the whole Bendis/Brubaker/Fraction axis at Marvel. My favorite artists are Gabriel Hardman and Colleen Coover. I’m sure I’m leaving somebody off. Oh, Fred Van Lente! Christos Gage! As far as all-time favorites, I have great love for a lot of classic Denny O’Neil work — Green Lantern/Green Arrow and The Question, particularly. I can’t really deny the influence of the Claremont/Byrne/Cockrum X-Men on forming my tastes, either, even if it’s not the stuff I gravitate toward now.

What comics are you currently reading? My current obsession is Fullmetal Alchemist, a shonen manga by Hiromu Arakawa. It’s this sprawling epic about magic and war and love and found family and figuring about how to be a good person in a corrupt society. And, you know, it’s also about people who fight by throwing fireballs at each other, and spend a lot of time on trains, and look really good in military uniforms. Also, there’s a dog with a robot leg. It’s comics.

In American comics, I’m still mostly a Marvel fan. I’ve been following Brian Bendis’s multi-year Avengers epic that is secretly a sequel to Alias, I love Invincible Iron Man and Avengers Academy and anything with Iron Fist or Misty Knight in it. My favorite DC Comics are pretty consistently about the women of the “Bat” universe — Batgirl and Birds of Prey, right now. I would certainly be reading any Batwoman or Question comics if they existed right now!

What kind of fangirl activities do you do? Well, I work on this website . . .wait, you know that! I like going to cons – probably just WisCon and Dragon Con this year, but you never know what will come up. I’ve also been involved with some comics podcasts, and more on that front may be developing soon. Other than that, I read, I tweet, I watch DVDs. I don’t think the “fangirl” mentality is limited to tradition “geek” properties, either. I go to a fair number of rock concerts and Shakespeare plays, all of which I approach with similar enthusiasm to geeking out over my favorite comics creator at a con.

So you’re a fangirl of comic books and Shakespeare — is there a connection? Do comic-geeks, theatre-geeks, and music-geeks all accept you as one of their own or do they “not get it”? Oh, not everybody is going to “get” everything. There’s plenty of stuff my friends like that I don’t get. But most of the enthusiasts I spend time with know what it is to be a fan of something, even if my thing isn’t their thing. That’s not to say that I lead every conversation about King Lear with, “This is just like that scene in The Dark Phoenix Saga,” but it’s not like anybody I know would be surprised if I did.

What’s your favorite Shakespeare play? Would it make a good comic? King Lear, in fact! That actually has been adapted into comics a few times recently and. . .the result wasn’t for me, really. I’m sure it could be done, and beautifully, but that play is so much about stumbling around an empty stage and wailing out your pain as much as possible, I don’t know how you adapt it to the page without losing a lot. That’s okay; sometimes a play just wants to be a play. There are some lovely uses of Shakespeare in comics, though. Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest both show up in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and since they’re about myth-making as much as they’re about drama, it works really well.

I think you might be able to make King Lear into a role-playing game, though. See what choices you can make that don’t result in the “rocks fall, everybody dies” ending. Just a thought.

Led Zeppelin wrote songs about The Lord of the Rings and U2 (Bono and the Edge) wrote the songs for the Spider-Man musical. Is there a collaboration between a musician and a geek property you want to happen? You know, every time I read Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ book Criminal I think, “This could be a Drive-By Truckers song.” And when I listen to a lot of the Truckers’ story songs — “Decoration Day,” for example, which is about the survivor of a family feud who’s torn between taking revenge for a father he hated and just letting the damn thing go — I think, “This could be a great crime comic.” So there ought to be some kind of musical-visual collaboration. They already have some great design elements with their album art by Wes Freed.

Maybe an anthology tied in with an album, like the Tori Amos Comic Book Tattoo collection. Granted, this might have an audience of me and 5 people I know, but you’d think that about a lot of things I like that somehow exist.

Alternatively, Jason Aaron should write a comic about that time in the seventies that Wolverine hung out with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. You know it happened.

What’s your favorite thing about comics? Why do you read them? I like fictional people who do brave and improbable things, who value their friendships and who try hard but really screw up sometimes. I like real people who are creative and enthusiastic about sharing their creative passions. Comic book characters give me the first; comic book fans and creators give me the second. What’s not to love about that?

email: Caroline@fantasticfangirls.org
twitter: madmarvelgirl
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Thanks for the chat, Caroline. Please get on that King Lear RPG, okay?

Posted by Anika
email: anika@fantasticfangirls.org
twitter: magnetgirl

2nd Annual Fantastic Comic Book Awards

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Anika

In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments. But this week we bring you: the winners of the Second Annual Fantastic Comic Book Awards!

“Welcome all of you to the Got Milk Theatre and the second annual Fantastic Comic Awards, I’m Selina –” There is a momentary silence. Selina knocks her co-host with her hip.

“Oh. And I’m Harry.”

Selina peers at his hands. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taping the show with my OsPhone.”

“We’re live.”

“I know.”

She points to the audience. “No, we’re live.”

He looks out where she’s pointing, grins and waves. “Cool. Everybody say ‘Fangirl!’” The audience laughs nervously, not sure how to react. Selina steps slightly in front of Harry and tries to get things back to point.

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Book Club #5: Nana — Day Two, Melodrama Queens

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Caroline

Today, we’ll be concluding our book club discussion of Nana, Volume 1, which we began yesterday. Today’s conversation delved into notions of drama and melodrama (what’s the difference anyway?) and their relationship to the particular conventions of shoujo manga.

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Book Club #5: Nana — Day One, First Impressions

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Caroline

For the fifth installment of the Fantastic Fangirls (Comic) Book Club, the four of us decided to read Nana, Volume 1, the first book in a shoujo manga by series written and drawn by Ai Yazawa.

If you want to get a jump on our next book club, we’ll be reading Neil Young’s Greendale by Joshua Dysart and Cliff Chiang. We’ll be discussing that sometime in April, and more details will be forthcoming.

Today, though, we’re going to start our discussion of Nana by sharing an email exchange that took place among the Fantastic Fangirls staff. This is a starting point for whatever our readers would like to say about the book. In the comments, feel free to address any of the points that came up in our discussion, or raise a topic/question of your own. Enjoy!

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